You have the right to be treated by your own health-care providers. However, if you file a claim for Part 7 (no-fault) accident benefits, ICBC can insist on you being examined by a doctor, dentist, physiotherapist or chiropractor of their choice. You should be notified of your appointment well in advance and your transportation costs paid. If you refuse to see an ICBC medical adviser – or you refuse to undergo treatment an ICBC medical advisor recommends - your accident benefits may be terminated or denied.

Before you allow an ICBC medical advisor to examine you, you may want to check with a personal injury lawyer to make sure this is wise. You won't want to be examined by anyone with a reputation as a “hired gun” for ICBC and other insurers.

Since ICBC sometimes ignores the recommendations of their own medical advisors, you may want to make it a pre-condition of your examination that the resulting report will be promptly passed on to your doctor - and lawyer, if any. (A “bad faith” action can be filed against ICBC if they refuse to fund treatment recommended by their own medical advisors.)

If you've hired a lawyer, he may tell your adjuster that you won't see the recommended doctor (or therapist) until you're fully reimbursed for treatment you've paid out of pocket that should be covered as a no-fault accident benefit and all total disability (wage-loss or homemaker) benefits you're owed are paid to you in full. Your lawyer can also try to get a commitment from ICBC that they won't use the report of their medical advisor against you if you later decide to file a claim for damages.

Once you file a claim for damages, ICBC may send you to an “independent medical examiner” (or IME) in an effort to diminish the value of your claim. These so-called experts rarely find anything wrong with anyone that they can't blame on pre-existing conditions, or they don't feel will spontaneously resolve once the person's claim settles. Medical examiners who want to be hired by ICBC have to be willing to consistently downplay claimants' injuries and disabilities - even when this means distorting their findings and ignoring evidence of existing problems.

You're not required to see a particular medical examiner unless you're under court order to do this. Before you agree to be assessed by someone, find out as much about them as you can. (Most personal injury lawyers offer free initial consultations. You can ask them for their opinion about a particular medical examiner when you meet them.)

ICBC's annual Statements and Schedules of Financial Information is available online or can be purchased from their head office for $5. This contains the name of every service provider to whom ICBC paid $10,000 or more in a calendar year. ICBC relies on a small group of doctors for assessments and medical-legal reports, some earning well over $100,000 a year for this.

If you refuse to see a medical examiner that ICBC wants to send you to, they can ask a judge in chambers to issue a court order requiring this. The lawyer who represents you in this action will have to show the judge (or court master) evidence of the medical examiner's bias towards ICBC in other cases.

Doctors paid over $100,000 by ICBC in ‘04, ‘05 and '06:

• Dr John Arthur ($137,689 in ‘06)
• Dr Paul Bishop / VGH Back Pain Clinic ($188,310 in ‘04; $278,472 in '05; $321,137 in '06)
• Dr Marc Boyle ($209,499 in '04; $243,717 in '05; $287,860 in '06)
• Dr Hymie Davis ($256,544 in '04; $183,625 in '05; $113,950 in '06)
• Dr I.G. Dommisse ($112,426 in '04; $141,704 in '05; $194,612 in '06)
• Dr T O'Farrell ($111,162 in '06)
• Dr Kenneth Favero ($205,981 in '04; $229,881 in '05; $245,483 in '06)• Dr H.E. Hawk ($233,715 in '05; $278,244 in '05; $336,650 in '06)
• Dr Andrew Hepburn ($224,014 in ‘04; $273,696 in '05; $231,300 in '06)
• Dr Stephen Maloon ($171,242 in ‘04; $178,393 in '05; $182,128 in '06)
• Dr Duncan McPherson ($269,862 in'04; $305.709 in '04; $294,150 in '06)• Dr Roy O'Shaughnessy ($118,168 in '04; $109,950 in '05; $154,800 in '05)
• Dr N.K. Reebye ($247,119 in '05; $308.189 in '05; $275.336 in '06)
• Dr Jeffrey Rostig ($258,573 in '06)
• Dr J.F. Schweigel ($574,813 in '04; $654,830 in '05; $796,012 in '06)
• Dr Derryck Smith ($204,803 in ‘04; $220,279 in ‘05; $232,142 in '06)
• Dr O.M. Sovio ($235,153 in '94; $234,110 in '05; $203,892 in ‘06)
• Dr Bernard Tessler ($147,362 in '05: $168,307 in '06)
• Dr Maelor Vallance ($114,063 in ‘04; $110,025 in ‘05; $142,200 in '06)
• Dr Peter Wong ($169,269; $153,099 in '05; $111,655 in '06)

This list isn't intended to be a comment on the qualifications, ethics or intentions of the people mentioned. It's a matter of public record. The above list may not be complete, and doctors frequently used in the past may not be on this list, so if you're looking for someone not listed here, check ICBC's Statements and Schedules of Financial Information for other years. You can find these through the search program at www.icbc.com.